My brow pinched, because this fucking hurt. Hurt that Shea had been resisting confiding in me because of who I was. A fucking loose cannon. Someone prone to violence. And there it was, right beneath the surface, fire flaming and licking and begging for release.

My voice was tight. “Made you a promise I’d protect you, Shea. Live for you. And that’s exactly what I’m gonna do. You and Kallie? You’re my life. My everything. And I will do anything…give up anything…to make sure you two are together. I won’t let him win.”

She brushed the back of her hand over the wetness on her cheeks. “He will do anything to break us apart…to separate us. He knows we’re weaker alone. All his words about taking us down at the same time?”

Her head shook with bitterness and hate, something so foreign on my girl’s face, but I saw it there—the atrocities he’d committed—the things she still kept inside.

The scars she wore on her heart while I wore mine on my skin.

“It’s a tactic. A ploy. He thinks he can fill us with threats. Convince our subconscious into believing together we’re easy targets. But, no.” Her eyes drew together as she refuted the idea, as she spilled her own belief. “He’s a coward. A coward. Someone who allows others to carry out his crimes and then lords it over them as if he is the one exerting control.”

That brave chin quivered. “I gave him my submission for so long, and I refuse to ever be that girl again. I was her, Sebastian. I was weak.”

Strength filled the profession. “But I’m not weak anymore. And I’m even stronger with you by my side.”

Raw.

Bold.

Courageous.

“Promise me you won’t let him provoke you, Sebastian. He knows exactly how to ruin people. He finds their weaknesses. He knows Kallie is mine. And he knows the two of us are yours.”

I swallowed hard. “I promise, baby.”

I promise.

He wanted nothing at all…

Until he found she had everything to give…

Sunder lead singer and guitarist Sebastian Stone has
everything—fans, fame, and fortune. He also has a heart full of bitterness and
a reputation for a short-fused temper. But an outward reputation rarely reveals
the true man inside. Facing assault charges after trying to protect his younger
brother, Sebastian is sent to Savannah, Georgia to lie low until the dust
settles in L.A.

Shea Bentley is beautiful, kind, and hiding from the very
lifestyle Sebastian has always embraced.

When the mysterious, tattooed stranger begins hanging out at the
bar where she works, Shea is quick to recognize he is nothing but trouble, but
she's helpless to the way her body lights up every time his intense gray eyes
tangle with hers.

They both soon find themselves drowning in a sea of desire and
passion that won’t let them up for air.

Sebastian knows firsthand secrets never die, and he’s not the only
one who’s hiding them.

Loving someone always comes with a price. But will it be Shea’s
past that costs them everything?

A.L. Jackson
is the New York Times bestselling author of contemporary and new adult romance.

She first
found a love for writing during her days as a young mother and college
student. She filled the journals she
carried with short stories and poems used as an emotional outlet for the
difficulties and joys she found in day-to-day life.

Years later,
she shared a short story she’d been working on with her two closest friends
and, with their encouragement, this story became her first full length novel.
A.L. now spends her days writing in Southern Arizona where she lives with her
husband and three children.